Wanting to call the Christmas season Christmas season -- which hasn't been politically correct in Florida for decades -- turned state Sen. Stephen Wise into my new favorite hero.
Wise, chairman of the Senate Committee on Education PreK-12, last week filed a bill to make sure that if the state public schools close down for any length of time that includes Christmas Day, that time off should be called Christmas Break -- not as it is today, Winter Break.
Here's a bill that really wins my heart.
SB 1136 won't end the recession, it won't create a single job and it's highly unlikely to impact the budget even by a dime. But I've been waiting for a politician to have the guts to take back Christmas ever since the angry aftermath of Lynch v. Donnelly, the 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the legality of holiday decorations on town property.
Please don't construe my Christmas enthusiasm as exclusionary. I take no offense at anyone else's specific holiday message or tradition. In fact, I welcome it.
But, in accordance with the First Amendment, I believe it's important to protect civic religious dialogues and preserve the right for everyone to worship as they believe. This does not mean limiting individuals' expression, in public or private, or their religious traditions in favor of creating a neutral holiday season.
Certainly I recognize that there are many religions that celebrate a variety of holidays this month. The fact is, students get time off at the end of the year because of Christmas -- not because it's winter, not because the leaves have dropped or because it's snowing up North somewhere. Until political-correct-creep found Florida, students were taking a Christmas Break in Sunshine State schools. Christmas Break, not Winter Break.
Happily, Sen. Wise, R-Jacksonville, subscribes to the belief that religious freedom means the right to embrace the customs and meaning of Christ's birth.
The majority of people in America are Christians, Wise told a Jacksonville TV station last week. So I said, why dont we just call it Christmas Break?
We respect the rights of the minority, but it comes to the point when the minority doesnt need to be running the majority, he said. We have the votes, you can pass the legislation. The minority sometimes has to work with the majority."
What has always bothered me is that attempts to celebrate a politically correct holiday season demean the First Amendment, and further -- cause the loss of the true meaning of Christmas.
I celebrate the spirit of Wise's bill because there is such an avoidance and hesitation to openly recognize Christmas, not just here but around the world.
- Two years ago at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark prohibited the striking Christmas trees that annually adorn the city's Bella Center, despite the fact that Christmas has been celebrated in Denmark since the 17th century. According to U.S. News and World Report magazine, Denmark's Foreign Ministry attributed the ban to the United Nations' attempt to remain neutral, meaning the country's traditions took a back seat on Christmas 2009.
- An elementary school in Oregon banned symbols like Santa Claus and Christmas trees and even threw out a "holiday giving tree," the purpose of which was to encourage students to give gifts to needy children.
- The principal of an elementary school in Connecticut instructed students to say "Happy winter" instead of "Merry Christmas." Both schools said that they did not want students whose families didn't celebrate Christmas to feel left out or uncomfortable because of the presence of religious symbols they didn't believe in.
Wise's bill may go nowhere in the fullness of the session ahead. But I love its spirit, its honesty, its timing, its utter constitutional correctness. By pushing Christmas out of the public sphere, we teach children that their celebrations and their sense of good will to man are somehow offensive and should be limited.
Wise was adamant and uncomplicated in explaining his bill. The reason were off (school)," he said, "is because of Christmas."
This is an opinion column. Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
